HoMM3: Combat or Adventure?

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As someone who is not that much into the combat (more like math, haha) side of TBS games, I had to go for adventure. I particularly liked the exploration aspect. It linked in with my most favourite element, getting caught with your pants down near 2 massive enemy armies in the middle of no man's land. That is what adventure's all about to me. The way it causes tension (e.g. scared because you don't know if the terrain will let you escape) proves it is one of the greatest games in its genre - a genre typified by hyper-realistic (and rather boring most of the time) wargames that usually don't succeed in causing long-term tension.

Julius {l Wrote}:Combat always felt like the weak element in HoMM. Age of Wonders did it right through.

I agree. I think Magic was way superior to Might and rendered most creatures pretty much pointless.Also, fighting stupid neutrals without a hero or magic that were composed of several stacks of the same creature was rather dull and unfair in most cases.

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Good day folks, why is it that there is no Strategy option? For me, whatever other appeals (such as great atmosphere and decent story) the game's most interesting aspect was always about thinking how to get the upper hand in long term. I never saved/loaded and often used quick combat (which only seems fair, since it puts me in the same conditions as neutrals and AI, more or less ), so I just tried to make a few really good decisions about where to go and what to build... of course, it was still largely a game of luck =) Anyway, I voted for adventure because combat would be absolutely meaningless without adventure element, while adventure can be fun even with quick combat. P.S. HoMM3 really isn't the only good classic strategy game - Disciples II, AoW, HoMM4 actually have more to offer, IMHO.

Regulus93 {l Wrote}:Good day folks, why is it that there is no Strategy option? For me, whatever other appeals (such as great atmosphere and decent story) the game's most interesting aspect was always about thinking how to get the upper hand in long term. I never saved/loaded and often used quick combat (which only seems fair, since it puts me in the same conditions as neutrals and AI, more or less ), so I just tried to make a few really good decisions about where to go and what to build... of course, it was still largely a game of luck =) Anyway, I voted for adventure because combat would be absolutely meaningless without adventure element, while adventure can be fun even with quick combat. P.S. HoMM3 really isn't the only good classic strategy game - Disciples II, AoW, HoMM4 actually have more to offer, IMHO.

There is no "strategy" option because the point of the game is winning and it's called a "tbs" for an obvious reason.I never like to use quick combat, but I really understand your PoV, HoMM3 and other games alike are pretty pathetic when it comes to combat: you tend to fight stupid creeps that lack a hero (so no items / skills / spells / bonus stats) and in HoMM usually the neutrals are even worse: formed of the same type of creature, which is even more of a handicap, unless encountering some sort of neutral hero (in some of the later games from the series if I'm not mistaken).

Anyway, AI tends to cheat in most games. For example in Quake 3 Arena, it knows where you are at all times and has all other essential information, like where powerups and such are and when they are available or when they'll spawn.

Regarding Ancient Beast itself, you don't need castles and other stuff, because the strategy element is moved into the combat itself, all players are pretty much equal, being able to summon any creature during combat, so it's not meaningless without the adventure element. In HoMM, most of the time you could easily tell which of the 2 players had the upper hand when entering combat, odds being in his favor, sometimes the winner being set in stone, so it was all over before it actually began.

I've played the other games you mentioned as well, a lot, and many more alike.

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One thing I liked about the combat was it seemed really balanced from a hot seat perspective of playing another player. On the other hand, when I soloed I mostly just loved the adventuring aspect of it. Actually, I preferred they art style of heroes 2 to that of heroes 3 because it was more colorful, cartoony and less realistic. In fact I have taken some of the ideas from the heroes 2 art style and added them into Wograld, mostly some of the very pretty terrain types with matching music.